| Name | Image | Tradition | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daf |  | Middle East | A daf, or daff, is a large-sized frame drum covered with goat-skin. It is used to accompany both popular and classical music in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and other countries of the Middle East. Some dafs are equipped with rings or small cymbals, making them a form of tambourine. When the daf drum is tilted forward, the rings can touch the skin to make a buzzing sound. Snapping the fingers against the head and shaking the frame creates additional rhythms. |
| Damaru |  | India | A damaru is a small two-headed drum shaped like an hourglass. The drum is typically made of wood, with leather drum head, or made out of human skulls. Its height ranges from a few inches to a little over a foot. It is played one handed. The strikers are typically beads fastened to the ends of leathern cords around the waist of the damaru. Knots in the leather can also be used as strikers. As the player waves the drum using a twisting wrist motion, the strikers beat on the drumhead. The damaru is well known throughout the Indian subcontinent. It is especially associated with the Hindu deity Shiva. The damaru is used by itinerant musicians of all stripes, due to its small portable size. The image shows a statue in Bangalore depicting Shiva meditating with one hand holding a damaru. |
| Darbuka |  | Egypt | Darbuka (also goblet drum or chalice drum) is a goblet shaped hand drum used in Arabic, Assyrian, Persian, Balkan, Armenian, Azeri and Turkish music. Its thin, responsive drumhead and resonance help it produce a distinctively crisp sound. There are two main types of goblet drums. The Egyptian style has rounded edges around the head, whereas the Turkish style exposes the edge of the head. The exposed edge allows closer access to the head so finger-snapping techniques can be done, but the hard edge discourages the rapid rolls possible with the Egyptian style. |
| Davul |  | Turkey | Davul is a large double-headed drum from Turkey. In Greece it is called a daouli. These drums are commonly used in the folk music of the Balkan countries like Macedonia and Bulgaria, portions of Greece, as well as Turkey and Iran. These drums have both a deep bass sound and a thin treble sound due to their construction and playing style, where different heads and sticks are used to produce different sounds on the same drum. The image shows a davul played by a member of an Ottoman military band. |
| Dayereh |  | Iran | A dayereh (or doyra, dojra, dajre, doira,dajreja) is a medium-sized frame drum with jingles, used to accompany both popular and classical music in Iran (Persia), The Balkans, and many Central Asian countries such as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. This single headed percussion instrument is formed by attaching a skin cover onto a wooden ring with glue and cloth ties. This is similar to the Persian daira and the Turkish def. |
| Dhad |  | India | Dhad is a small hourglass-shaped drum of the Damru style. Held in one hand, it is struck on either side, with the other hand holding the skinned sides vertically or horizontally. This instrument has been very popular with the Dhadies, who sing traditional ballads of brave warriors and heroes drawn from history. |
| Dhol |  | Punjab | Dhol is a double-sided sided barrel drum (straight barrels also exist) played mostly as an accompanying instrument to the traditional Punjabi dance of Bhangra, and the religious music of Sufism, Qawwali. |
| Dholak |  | Pakistan | The Dholak (or dholaki) is a classical North Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese hand drum. A dholak may have traditional lacing or turnbuckle tuning. The dholak has a simple membrane and a handle on the right-hand side. The left-hand membrane has a special coating on the inner surface. This coating is a mixture of tar, clay and sand (dholak masala) which lowers the pitch and provides a well-defined tone. |
| Djembe |  | Guinea | A djembe also known as djimbe, jenbe, jembe, yembe, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin covered hand drum, shaped like a large goblet, and meant to be played with bare hands. According to the Bamana people in Mali, the name of the djembe comes directly from the saying "Anke dje, anke be" which literally translates to "everyone gather together", and defines the drum's purpose. The proper sound is achieved with minimum effort for maximum effect. The key is to either focus or disperse the hand's energy, and position the hand in the correct place. The image shows a Lenke wood djembe from Guinea in west Africa. |
| Dohol |  | Iran | Dohol is a big cylindrical two-sided drum to be played by two special drumsticks. One is wooden thick stick that is bowed at the end and its name is Changal (or Kajaki). The other is thin wooden twig and its name is Deyrak. (In Hormozgan province of Iran, Dohol is played by two hands.) Dohol is the main accompaniment of sorna (Persian oboe). The Iranian dohol is a famous form of cylindrical drum. Many music areas nears in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia include variations on the dohol and cylindrical drum forms, including the dhol of Armenia, daval of Kurdistan and the tabl ballady of Egypt. |
| Dong Son Drums |  | Vietnam | Dong Son drums (also called Heger Type I drums) are bronze drums fabricated by the Dong Son culture, in the Red River Valley of northern Vietnam. The drums were produced from about 600 BC until the third century AD, and are one of the culture's finest examples of metalworking. The drums, cast in bronze using the lost wax method, are up to a meter in height and weigh up to 100 kg. They may be based on a form originally from Yunnan. Dong Son drums are apparently both musical instruments and cult objects. They are decorated with geometric patterns, scenes of daily life and war, animals and birds, and boats. Dong Son drums include Ngoc Lu drum, Hoang Hoa drum, Co Loa drum and Song Da drum. |
| Duggi |  | Bangladesh | Duggi is a small kettledrum worn around the waist by Baul performers in Bangladesh and India. They use the drum to accompany their spiritual songs, dances and begging chants. |
| Dundun |  | Nigeria | Dundun is the Yoruba name of the West African talking drum. The player puts the drum under one shoulder and beats the instrument with a stick. The Yoruba have an advanced drumming tradition, with a characteristic use of the dundun hourglass talking drums. Ensembles using the dundun play a type of music that is also called dundun. These ensembles consist of various sizes of talking drums, along with kettledrums (gudugudu). The leader of a dundun ensemble is the iyalu, who uses the drum to "talk" by imitating the tonality of Yoruba. |
| Dunun |  | Gambia | A Dunun (also known as dundun, doundoun, or djun-djun) is a set of West African bass drums. They are kenkeni (smallest), sangban (medium) and doundounba (largest). The kenkeni has the highest pitch and usually holds the rhythm together with a simple pattern. The sangban typically has a more complex part which defines the rhythm. The doundounba often serves to add depth with deep, widely spaced notes. These drums provide a rhythmic and melodic base for the djembe ensemble. |
| Edakka |  | India | Idakka is an hourglass-shaped drum from Kerala, south India. They are very similar to the damaru which is found throughout India. Where the damaru is played by rattling knotted cords against the resonators, the idakka is played with a stick. The idakka's pitch may be bent by squeezing the lacing in the middle.The left hand is used for tightening and loosening the tape wound round the middle. Varying the tension of the tape produces variations in tones. Simple melodies extending over one octave can be played in this instrument. The Edakka is one of the five instruments that constitute the panchavadhyam of Kerala. |
| Fish Drum |  | China | A fish-drum (Chinese: 魚鼓) or pao pei is a traditional Chinese instrument. It is composed of a long cylinder, often of bamboo, over one end of which is stretched a piece of prepared fish skin or snakeskin. Two items that resemble projecting golf clubs are the ends of long slips of bamboo used as castanets. The image shows a woodcut of Elder Zhang Guo, who lived during the Tang Dynasty , carrying a fish-drum. |
| Furro |  | Venezuela | The furro is a a friction drum from Venezuela. It is a percussion instrument consisting of a single membrane stretched over a sound box, whose sound is produced by the player causing the membrane to vibrate by friction. It is used in zulian traditional music such as parranda and gaita. |
| Ghaval |  | Azerbaijan | Ghaval, the Azerbaijani frame drum, is played in Azerbaijani folk and art music. In Azerbaijani art music a traditional ensemble contains a singer, which plays on ghaval (center) and two instrumentalists, one plays on tar (long-necked lute)(left) and the other plays on kamancheh (bowed spike fiddle) (right). |
| Gome |  | Ghana | A gome drum is a goatskin stretched over a wooden box frame. The drummer sits on top of the box and plays this drum with both hands. The heels of the player’s feet press against the skin to change the pitch. |
| Gudugudu |  | Nigeria | Gudugudu is a traditional drum used by the Yoruba ethnic group of Nigeria. It is a smaller, rounded, and melodic batá drum that is beaten with two thin and flexible "spatulas" made of a cow's hide or skin. In fact, this drum so melodic and danceable that it perhaps does not need an accompaniment. It can be seen and experienced in today's sekere, fuji, apala and possibly juju. |
| Hang |  | Switzerland | A hang (pronounced 'hung' or 'hong') is a melodious percussive musical instrument, similar to a steel drum. It uses many of the same physical principles to operate. However, since it is struck with the fingers, the sound is generally much softer than a steel drum, and can be played in many ways to produce a wide variety of sounds. The instrument is also frequently called a hang drum, because of the nature in which it is played, its relation to the steel drum, and its popularity with hand drummers. |
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